For all media enquiries please contact Sophie Goodfellow and Ashton Bainbridge at FMcM Associates on 0207 405 7422 or, sophieg@fmcm.co.uk, ashtonb@fmcm.co.uk

‘ If you are interested in how you can foster children’s well-being and resil ience, there is good evidence that empathy should be a key

priority.’

9:30AM-12:30PM: READ9:30AM Children’s Laureate Cressida Cowell introduces Empathy Day

10:00AM Special #DrawWithRob from Rob Biddulph

10:30AM Empathy-themed Story Maker ’s show from Puffin

11:00AM Empathy Library Rhyme Time – join Kate Priestley from Kingston Libraries

11:30AM Sarah Crossan sets the Empathy Poetry challenge

12 noon ALL TOGETHER: Malorie Blackman leads as we put on Empathy Glasses and share #ReadForEmpathy ideas

1:30PM-2:30PM: CONNECT1:30PM Authors Jo Cotterill and Robin Stevens show us the Listening Switch exercise for l istening 100%

2:00PM Author Joseph Coelho leads Empathy Charades and families play at home

2:30PM-3:30PM: ACT2:30PM Authors Onjali Rauf and Sita Brahmachari introduce ‘putting empathy into action’

3:30PM ALL TOGETHER: make an Empathy Poster to share on social media or in your window

7:15PM The Empathy Conversation with authors Cressida Cowell and Muhammad Khan, and psychologist Professor Robin Banerjee

Professor Robin Banerjee, Head of Psychology, University of Sussex

Empathy is a vital human force which has come into sharp focus during the pandemic. Right now, we’ve never needed it more. The good news is that it ’s a skil l you can learn, and Empathy Day on June 9 aims to help everyone understand and experience its transformational power. It looks forward to a future society in which empathy is much more central.

The Day focuses on using books to step into someone else’s shoes. Scientists say that we can train our brain with stories – the more you empathise with characters, the more you understand other people’s feelings.

Empathy Day was established by not-for-profit EmpathyLab, who are on a mission to inspire the rising generation to drive a new empathy movement. They will host a Countdown Fortnight from May 26 , and on June 9 a day of bril l iant online events and home-based celebrations to help children READ, CONNECT AND ACT using empathy.

Leading authors and il lustrators have stepped up to headline the Day, launched by Children’s Laureate Cressida Cowell . Noughts and Crosses author Malorie Blackman leads a rallying #ReadForEmpathy cry; Rob Biddulph hosts an empathy-themed draw along; poet Joseph Coelho uses Empathy Charades to help children expand their understanding of emotions.

JUNE 9 TIMELINE

For all media enquiries please contact Sophie Goodfellow and Ashton Bainbridge at FMcM Associates on 0207 405 7422 or, sophieg@fmcm.co.uk, ashtonb@fmcm.co.uk

THE CASE FOR EMPATHY

THE RESEARCHThe importance of empathy has come into sharp focus during the Coronavirus crisis.

1) Empathy is learnable. 98% of us can improve our empathy skills at any point in our lives.(Simon Baron-Cohen, Zero Degrees of Empathy 2011, University of Cambridge)

2) Empathy is a vital social and emotional skill. Research shows these skills are more significant for young people’s academic attainment than IQ (Public Health England, 2014)

3) 94% of employers say that in the workplace, social and emotional skills are as important as academic qualifications (Sutton Trust, 2018)

4) Neuroscientists say that reading fiction builds real l ife empathy skills. During lockdown, reading has been shown to be especially important - 31% of survey respondents (and 45% of 18-25 year olds) reported increasing their reading since 23 March (The Reading Agency, April 2020)

5) Even before the pandemic, concerns were growing about society ’s empathy deficit. Hate crimes increased by 10% in 2018/19, the highest level since Home Office records began.

‘Empathy is a vital skill, and books are the best, and most fun, way to learn it.’— Cressida Cowell, Children’s Laureate

WORK WITH SCHOOLS With 11 pioneer schools, EmpathyLab has developed an Empathy Explorers programme. This develops empathy and literacy skil ls, and social activism and is now being rolled out in Wales, with NESTA funding.

Impact research from the pioneer schools found:

• 75% of teachers reported that children were calmer and less stressed.

• 100% reported that children could more easily name and share emotions

• 87% said they had observed an increase in the frequency of children reading

• Behaviour improved – one school, after a year doing the programme, reported a drop in behaviour incidents from 147 to 87

• 100% of teachers reported that children had developed a far better understanding of what empathy is, how it works and why it matters

The full report (2016-2018) is available here .

GETTING INVOLVED!

‘I am following the future of EmpathyLab with great interest. I love the way EmpathyLab is exploring how to build children’s emotional intelligence through words and stories. It ’s amazing to see the worlds of literacy, neuroscience and wellbeing brought together.’ — Dame Jacqueline Wilson

For all media enquiries please contact Sophie Goodfellow and Ashton Bainbridge at FMcM Associates on 0207 405 7422 or, sophieg@fmcm.co.uk, ashtonb@fmcm.co.uk

GETTING INVOLVED!

EMPATHY SHORTS Exclusive new (very!) short stories from eight leading children’s writers. So that every child has a chance to read something empathy-boosting during this period.Stories come from Jo Cotterill , Marcia Williams, Atinuke, Gill Lewis , Sam Copeland, Bali Rai, Lucinda Jacob and AF Harrold (with a l inked Emily Gravett i l lustration).

Empathy Shorts will be available here from May 27.

The Family Activity Pack features 14 writing, drawing, crafting, l istening and reading activities to complete in the two-week countdown to EmpathyDay.It ’s full of great story and character-based activities to develop empathy skil ls, l ike making a character ’s world from a cardboard box or detecting feelings in faces.Available now at www.empathylab.uk . To preview the content please get in touch.

FAMILY ACTIVITIES PACK

‘Reading allows us to view ‘Reading allows us to view the world – and ourselves – the world – and ourselves – through another ’s eyes and to through another ’s eyes and to walk in their shoes for a while, walk in their shoes for a while, developing understanding.‘developing understanding.‘——Malorie BlackmanMalorie Blackman

COUNTDOWN FORTNIGHT In the fortnight running up to Empathy Day children and families can join in some powerful empathy-boosting activities.

• A new Family Activities Pack inspires families to explore, understand and practice empathy

• Empathy Shorts - eight new short stories, written exclusively for Empathy Day

• Empathy Read Alouds – authors reading books from the Read For Empathy collections

• School-based activities – schools can use a special Toolkit packed with activity ideas

• Il lustration Gallery – stunning new il lustrations interpreting the theme of Read For Empathy

• Author blog tour – featuring 11 authors writing about empathy in books

To arrange a preview of the resources, use the content, or speak to the authors or i l lustrators involved, please get in touch.

May 26 - June 9

GETTING INVOLVED! GETTING INVOLVED!

For all media enquiries please contact Sophie Goodfellow and Ashton Bainbridge at FMcM Associates on 0207 405 7422 or, sophieg@fmcm.co.uk, ashtonb@fmcm.co.uk

THE #READFOREMPATHY ILLUSTRATION GALLERY From May 26 until June 9, an army of i l lustrators will provide new images for the EmpathyLab website to help spread the Read For Empathy message.

Pictures play a vital role in conveying emotions and feelings. The use of certain colours, a detail of a facial expression, or the use of white space all help the reader understand their own and other people’s perspectives.

This year ’s contributors are: Elina Ellis, Sophy Henn, Amrit Birdi, Nasaya Mafaridik, Helen Bate , Katie Hickey, Robyn Wilson Owen, Sarah Horne, Feronica Parker-Thomas, Jayde Perkin , Alice Oseman , Jessica Love, George Ermos , Daisy Hirst, Binny Talib and Vivianna Maria Stanislavska.

Find out more here.

EMPATHY READ ALOUDS

18 videos of authors reading books from the Read for Empathy collections. Featuring Elina Ellis , Wendy Meddour , Sophia Thakur, Joseph Coelho , Jessica Love , Moniza Alvi, Tony Bradman , Catherine Johnson, Tom Percival , Ieva Flamingo , Patrice Lawrence , Cath Howe , Cori Doerrfeld , Steven Camden , Sophy Henn and Atinuke .

Read Alouds are being added to the EmpathyLab website already (find out more here), and are also available via their YouTube channel here .

READ FOR EMPATHY BLOG TOUR@EmpathyLabUK #ReadforEmpathy #EmpathyDay MONDAY JUNE 1That Boy Can Teach (@thatboycanteach)Zanib Mian, Planet Omar (9-11)A Little But A Lot (@eenalol) Alice Oseman, Heartstopper (14+)TUESDAY JUNE 2Books for Topics (@booksfortopics) Richard O’Neill, Polonius the Pit Pony (picture book, 4-9)WEDNESDAY JUNE 3Just Imagine (@imaginecentre) Lucy Popescu, A Country to Call Home (10+)THURSDAY JUNE 4Book Lover Jo (bookloverJo) Stewart Foster, Check Mates (9-11) FRIDAY JUNE 5Miss Cleveland is Reading (@MissNCleveland) India Desjardins, A Story About Cancer with a Happy Ending (10+)SATURDAY JUNE 6My Book Corner (@MyBookCorner) Dean Atta, The Black Flamingo (14+)SUNDAY JUNE 7Library Girl and Book Boy (@BookSuperhero2) Vanessa Harbour, Flight (9-11)MONDAY JUNE 8The Teacher Bookworm (@primaryteachew) Rebecca Westcott, Can You See Me (9-11)YLG (@youthlibraries)Muhammad Khan, Kick the Moon (14+) Twitter chat the next nightTUESDAY JUNE 9The Reader Teacher (MrEPrimary) Polly Ho-Yen, Two Sides (5-8)

For more information on the Empathy Blog Tour, go here.

For all media enquiries please contact Sophie Goodfellow and Ashton Bainbridge at FMcM Associates on 0207 405 7422 or, sophieg@fmcm.co.uk, ashtonb@fmcm.co.uk

Notes to Editors

About EmpathyLabEmpathyLab is passionate about the power of stories to build empathy and the power of empathy to make the world a better place. The not-for-profit organisation has founded Empathy Day and is developing an empathy, l iterature and social action programme for young people. It was started in 2014 by Miranda McKearney OBE, who also founded The Reading Agency.

www.empathylab.uk @EmpathyLabUK

About Empathy Day Empathy Day was founded in 2017. It aims to drive a new empathy movement, inspired by research showing that humans are not born with a fixed quantity of empathy – it ’s a skil l we can learn. In 2020 Empathy Day is on 9th June and is a l ightning rod for a new story-driven empathy movement. A wide range of organisations are joining forces to harness books’ empathy-building power, inspired by scientific evidence that in identifying with book characters, we learn to see things from other points of view.

Schools, l ibraries, young people’s organisations, publishers, prisons, booksellers, TV producers are working with EmpathyLab to emphasise empathy’s importance and create story-based activities which help us all understand each other better.

About Empathy Circle A publisher collective which works with EmpathyLab to drive a book-based empathy movement, based on scientific evidence that l iterature is a powerful empathy-building tool, and that our plastic brains can develop new empathy skil ls at any time in our l ives.

The Empathy Circle publishers support EmpathyLab financially and in-kind and meet three times a year to accelerate the four strands of EmpathyLab’s strategy: an annual national Empathy Day; a new, expertly produced, Read for Empathy Guide made freely available to adults l iving and working with young people; the Empathy Explorers schools programme; and Empathy Authors and Il lustrators, a programme that mobilises and equips authors and il lustrators to drive forward a book-based empathy movement.

The Empathy Circle children’s publishers are Andersen Press, Bloomsbury, Bonnier Books UK, Hachette Children’s Group, Macmillan Children’s Books, Nosy Crow, Penguin Random House Children’s, Usborne and Walker Books.

About Miranda McKearney OBE and the team Miranda is a social justice entrepreneur who has spent 35 years turning kitchen table ideas into nationwide campaigns, culminating in founding The Reading Agency, a national charity, in 2002. The charity ’s Summer Reading Challenge now involves 800,000 children every year.

Having “retired” to go trekking, she became fascinated by the building body of research showing that reading builds empathy. This has led to her founding EmpathyLab with fellow Directors Sarah Mears, Craig Hill , Caroline Scott and Ruth Harrison. This team is supported by a growing band of volunteers and partners, all wanting to drive an empathy movement forwards.

@MirandaMcK